1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a protective sleeve, and more particularly to a protective sleeve that fits around and protects a paper cup used in the preparation of various confectionary drinks such as malted milk and ice cream shakes.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Restaurants and ice cream shops prepare confectionary-type drinks such as malted milk and ice cream shakes for their customers using an electric mixer to properly blend the various ingredients. A typical electric mixer used to make these products consists of a base, an upright support, a power head, and a vertical shaft extending downward from the power head with a propellertype metallic mixing element attached to its free end. An electric motor in the power head drives the shaft which spins the mixing element. The container commonly used to hold the ingredients during the mixing operation is a metal, typically stainless steel, receptacle. The metal receptacle can withstand the impact of the metallic mixing element which occurs during the numerous instances when the operator inadvertently allows the metal receptacle to come into contact with the spinning mixing element.
Using a metal receptacle or container to prepare malted milk and ice cream shakes has proven costly, cumbersome, noisy, and time consuming. The metal containers are heavy stainless steel receptacles which become quite cold and facilitate the condensation of moisture on the exterior of the container during the mixing operation. These cold, moist, and smooth stainless steel containers tend to slip out of workers hands, especially if the workers hands are wet. During mixing, the mixing element often strikes the metal container making loud grinding sounds which are unpleasant and disconcerning to the waiting purchaser. In addition, after mixing, the worker must transfer the malted milk or ice cream shake into a glass or a paper cup which the worker actually gives to the customer for use. Before mixing another shake or malt, the worker must thoroughly wash the metal container. This additional washing step is time consuming and costly. In addition, in transferring the malt or shake from the metal container to the paper or glass, the potential for spilling the product presents itself. These spills are also costly and time consuming.
To overcome the disadvantages in using metal containers many restaurants and ice cream shops now use paper cups to both mix and serve the malted milk or ice cream shake to their customers. The establishments that use the single paper cup to prepare and serve these drinks have encountered a number of problems. The metallic mixing element of the mixer punctures or rips the sides of the paper cup every time the two come into contact. The puncturing or ripping of the paper cup generally results in the spilling of the contents which requires clean up and lost time. Furthermore, the loss of ingredients frequently requires the worker to start the entire mixing process over with new ingredients since the customer expects to receive a properly mixed product with the proper proportions of ingredients. The remixing of the product with fresh ingredients commonly results in an outright loss of the discarded ingredients to the establishment. Even if spillage does not occur, the transfer to another cup to complete the mixing operation is costly to the establishment and reduces the profit for the product. In addition to these purely economic concerns, the ripping or puncturing of the cup by the metal mixing element can seriously injure the operator by lacerating the fingers that hold the cup. Furthermore, since the mixing operation requires the operator to frequently turn the paper cup by hand, the pressure exerted on the cup by the operator tends to deform the cup and bend the surrounding lip. When the lip portion of the cup bends, portions of the cup's protective wax come loose and present an unsightly appearance to the customer. In addition, the loosened wax can actually get into the consumers mouth during drinking which, while not harmful, distracts from the overall product appeal.
In todays marketplace the use of pieces of hard candy such as M&M, Reeses Pieces and the like as additives to the traditional milk shake have become quite popular. When making malts and shakes with bits of hard candy as one of the ingredients an additional problem arises. When the mixing element strikes the hard candy, it breaks the candy into pieces and propells these pieces against the sides of the cup at a high speed. Some of the candy pieces puncture the sides of the cup. This, of course, has all of the disadvantages referred to above.
The protective sleeve of the present invention avoids the problems discussed above. The sleeve is a simple and inexpensive device. It allows restaurants and ice cream shops to prepare malted milk and ice cream shakes in the paper cups that they use to serve their customers; it prevents puncturing of the cup's sidewalls by the mixing element or the hard objects in the ingredients; and it prevents buckling of the cup during mixing.